The electronics industry continues to rely upon advances in semiconductor technologies to realize higher-function devices in more compact areas. For many applications realizing higher-functioning devices requires integrating a large number of electronic devices into a single silicon wafer. As the number of devices per given area of the silicon wafer increases, the manufacturing process becomes more difficult.
Many varieties of semiconductor devices have been manufactured having applications in various disciplines. Such silicon-based semiconductor devices often include metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFET), such as p-channel MOS (PMOS), n-channel MOS (NMOS) and complementary MOS (CMOS) transistors, bipolar transistors, BiCMOS transistors. Such MOSFET devices include an insulating material between a conductive gate and silicon-like substrate; therefore, these devices are generally referred to as IGFETs (insulated-gate FET).
Having manufactured a number of electronic devices on a wafer substrate, a particular challenge is to package these devices for their given purpose. As the complexity of portable systems increases, there is a commensurate need to reduce the size, enhance the electrical performance, and enhance the thermal performance of the individual components which make up the system as the device is often laid out on a printed circuit substrate. There is a need for packaging which can address these challenges.